Interview on leadership style for a company newsletter

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AECOM is Michael S. Burke. He joined AECOM in 2005 after serving as a partner at KPMG for ten years. Since then, he has dominated the company’s top management. He began working at AECOM as its Chief Financial Officer, a position he maintained until 2011. He progressed to become the other president of AECOM, where he served for three years. He attained his current position of leadership in 2014. AECOM is a company that develops buildings and infrastructure; it was founded roughly 25 years ago.

According to the five-factor personality model, agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience are the characteristics that determine leadership. The attitudes, emotions, motives and social interaction shed light on the personality of a person and their suitability for leadership positions (Judge, Rodell, Klinger, Simon, & Crawford, 2013).

Mr. Burke leads AECOM that has nearly 100, 000 employees hailing from various fields in the business. AECOM also has branches in over 150 countries showing the large extent of international relations of the CEO. His agreeableness is not limited to AECOM. Locally, he puts energy in taking part in activities. Sitting on various boards, including the Board of Children’s Bureau, he maintains contact with various aspects that affect the world. The success of respective entities that these boards govern depends on the good relationship that he develops. He approaches all the duties accorded to him with enthusiasm and is an involved member of anything in which he participates.

Mr. Burke has guided the company in the turbulence of the business world with his organizational efficiency. He is steadfast in improving AECOM to become a major game changer in the developing world. As a business, AECOM doubled its revenue and share value rose exponentially during his tenure according to a 2015 annual report (Burke, 2015). He created elaborate plans to reduce the debt of the company, and they paid off. With him at the helm of the conglomerate, the synergy savings increased by 30% and more employment opportunities were created in various fields in design, finance, building and infrastructure development. His conscientiousness is evident as he has unlimited reliability when it comes to productivity. AECOM is involved with a multitude of science and technology entities concerned with innovation, research, and development of ideas to tackle the world complex problems. Together with the leadership council, he has drafted plans for the future of the company to keep afloat and profitable. His integrity is unquestionable with no blemish found during his stewardship. Periodic reports are released publicly and match the situation on the ground, and all queries are satisfied.

The Chairman accepts new ideas that align with the core values of AECOM. He has overseen the devising of innovation, research, and development branch that seeks to find new and modern ways to deal with emerging challenging issues in the world over. Innovative and talented people in various respects are under the employment of the company to come up with applicable solutions to problems presented before them. Mr. Burke has expanded the web of the subjects in which they are involved. He is part of the other boards and committees that do not necessarily deal with building and infrastructure. He is part of the LA 2024 committee that was formed with efforts to bring the Summer Olympic Games to Los Angeles. As a leader, he is an open person. He is a down to earth person with a warm, welcoming personality that encourages communication.

AECOM could not have picked a better person to lead the organization. Good attributes are the highlights of his character. His rise to his current position was not accompanied by an insufferable inflation of the ego. The level of trust he has obtained from his colleagues is from the observation that his decisions are rarely ever flawed. Decisions are made with clear minds without any compromise of emotions and feelings. His confidence in the leadership council trickles down and effective communication upheld to ensure cohesion and the forward development of AECOM (Thomas, et al., 2013).

The effectiveness of leadership is tested when faced with conundrums. The way the CEO guides the group under him defines how effective he is as the leader of AECOM. AECOM faces various difficulties that arise with running a successful business. As per 2015, AECOM was wallowing in debts of $4.6 billion as per their 2015 report. This debt constrained their ability to meet their operational expenditures and capital for a future project as well as stability against adverse economic conditions, the trust of the clientele and stakeholders, the competitive edge over their rivals and other underlying issues (Burke, 2015). It was up to the leadership to take AECOM out of the woods.

Through the power vested in the board of directors, Mr. Burke led AECOM to acquire various companies. These acquisitions increased the revenue accrued by the company by 115% in 2015. Excluding these acquisitions elucidates the decrease in revenue compared to the previous fiscal year. The gross profit showed the same relationship with the acquisition of the new companies. Therefore, this aided in the cutting down of their debts. He also facilitated joint ventures with other firms which nearly doubled the equity they received. Although the acquisitions and joint ventures increased their collective worth, the expenses of acquisition and integration tended to run thin their take. Ways to decrease these expenses and debts had to be devised. Policies were drafted and enforced such as drafting profitable and binding contracts, determination of their financial instruments, evaluation of assets and liabilities, insurance and joint investments. The Board of Directors also voted for buying back $1 billion of the company’s stock to stabilize control of their value in the stock market. Many other issues threaten to curtail AECOM’s development, but it remains standing strong under the able leadership of Mr. Burke (Burke, 2015).

Taking extensive lessons from the unique and ever-changing situations in the business world, Mr. Burke has deployed an arsenal of contingencies to counter future trials. Business being all about making profits, cutting costs and reducing losses, he has developed an unassailable degree of leadership that any company wishes to have. He exudes charisma in his day-to-day guidance of AECOM and no doubt many look up to him for guidance. (Judge, Rodell, Klinger, Simon, & Crawford, 2013)

References

Burke, M. S. (2015). AECOM 2015 Annual Report. California: AECOM.

Judge, T. A., Rodell, J. B., Klinger, R. L., Simon, L. S., & Crawford, E. R. (2013). Hierarchical Representations of the Five-Factor Model of Personality in Predicting Job Performance: Integrating Three Organizing Frameworks With Two Theoretical Perspectives. Journal of Applied Psychology, 875.

Thomas, K. M., Yalch, M. M., Krueger, R. F., Wright, A. G., Markon, K. E., & Hopwood, C. J. (2013). The Convergent Structure of DSM-5 Personality Trait Facets and Five-Factor Model Trait Domains. Assessment, 20(3), 308-311.